Ingomar claims division championship, defeating Myrtle

Andy Wilbanks was exhausted during his team’s game against Myrtle on Thursday. Spending the day witnessing the birth of his second child, he took a different approach to the game, opting to take a step back and let his team work their way out of an early 4-1 deficit. His patience worked, as the Falcons eventually run ruled the Hawks, 15-5, to win the Division 2-1A championship.

“When we come with a good effort and a good focus, we tend to do what we’re capable of doing,” Wilbanks said. “We just need to come with good intentions and intensity and just get after it.”

Ingomar scored the game’s first run on a single by Wesley Jumper. A throwing error by the Hawks plated Kensey Stout, but Myrtle quickly rebounded from their miscues, scoring four in the top of the second with Taylor Hogue, Austin Floyd and Anthony Lipsey bringing in runs.

The Falcons answered with six runs off four hits with Stout, Austin Gregory and Wesley Jumper accounting for three straight doubles. Tanner McCollum tacked on the fourth-straight hit, an RBI single, making it 7-4.

Myrtle would ad on one more run in the third, but Ingomar closed out the game with eight runs over the fourth and fifth innings, including home runs by McCollum and Tyler Dowdy. Dowdy’s shot came after he was replaced on the mound in the second inning by Jumper. After the second, the Hawks were held to only one run and one hit.

“Dowdy’s thrown in the last month and a half and has been great, but he just didn’t have it tonight,” Wilbanks said. “It happens, but Jumper came in and picked it up and Dowdy did his part at the plate. I guess we all just pick each other up.”

Jumper led the Falcons with three hits, while Stout, Gregory and McCollum had two hits each.

With the win, the Falcons claim the division championship and now looks forward to the last week of the regular season while preparing for the playoffs.

“We’re looking forward to it and now we have a full week and a half to just go over fundamentals and getting things right,” Wilbanks said. “In the playoffs, you make early mistakes, you’re going to end early, so we’re going to try to not do that this year.”